Family Reunions, Rain and Cooking!

So June has just been a nice month for cooking, family and rain storms. Just this week we saw the last of some nice thunder storms, cool wind and clean fresh air. We also made a lot of treats. Strawberry frozen yogurt (with our garden strawberries), sushi rolls (we made for the first time) and a Brazilian dinner. For the sushi dinner we decorated the table in Asian decor, and made our own pickled ginger and I recreated the creamy house ginger salad dressing from my favorite restaurant. We like it better. Gabe and Paisley loved the sushi rolls! For the Brazilian dinner I made Brazilian BBQ beef on skewers (we liked them just as much as the real thing), Brazilian cheese bread (Pao de Queijo), salad and homemade banana cream pie. Later this week we'll do Italian, Mexican and German (schnitzel and spatzle). At our house we love food from around the world.

We had two family reunions on Saturday but I didn't lean about the second one (the Willardson reunion) until the morning of, so I couldn't go. The Lundskog reunion was at Wheeler Farm. It was so fun. We went on an "I spy" hunt with the kids. Gabe got to trade our paper in for a treaure box full of bubble gum gold coins. We also went on a tractor ride all over the farm. I acutioned a bag of my baby hair accessories at the auction and I won a bid on an antique handcrafted wood and porcelin item made in Germany. It's supposed to be worth $160 and I got it for $15. It's a cute little flower shop store that I hung in Paisley's room. For some reason I connected with it and just had to have it. We had fun with cousins and Grandma and then came home and crashed.

Gabe completed his swimming lessons this week with Aunt Cherise. He did so good. With help he floats on his back, does ice cream scoops, blows bubbles in water, and kicks on his stomach. He also dove for rings in shallow water of course. He now has an interest in singing and dancing because of Michael Jackson and wants to take lessons and perform. He was actually a Michael Jackson fan before he dies this week. His favorite video was always thriller but now he likes "Bad" just as much. Yes, he was pretty down about his death and talks about it every day with us.

We look forward to the 4th of July this week and plan to make homeade cherry ice cream. Can't wait!

Happy Father's Day - I Can't Get The Music Off Here

Sorry, I can't delete whatever song that is playing with my slide show. It automatically comes with the slide shows unless you remove it. I forgot to remove it and now it won't let me. My apologies!!!

We celebrated Father's Day with Grandpa Rog and Grandma Candice yesterday. They had a fun Luau at their home that was sadly rained out. It was so cute what they had done and the food was fabulous. They made cute games for the kids and had prizes but we had to leave early to make it to my high school reunion.

That was a disappointment. They didn't send out invitations so about 40 couples showed up from a class of about 700 students. It was in a tech room at the high school. There were no decorations or signs that said class of 99 or anything. There were tables set up with black plastic table cloths on them and that was it. The only nice thing was that it was catered by Costa Vida but we had already eaten so we took a to go box. There was no program or anything. They gave out a few gag gift prizes for some cheesy awards and that was it. There was a man in the corner playing poor quality 80's love ballads on a tiny stereo. We were wondering why it cost us $24 to attend. I ran into my old BF Holly and we decided to sign up for the reunion committee for next time. I don't think its that hard to throw a nice and memorable reunion for $24 a couple so we'll see what happens.

Today we celebrated Father's Day for Manuel. Church was canceled again from the swine flu so I made a huge breakfast. We made blueberry and strawberry pancakes and eggs. Then we gave Manuel his gift. We have taken several naps today and have just been playing with the kids.

My diet is officially over. I lost 11 pounds and 21 inches. I ran 4 miles each day and worked out a lot. Probably traded the fat for muscle. Not sure if was worth $340 however it did teach me so helpful habits and new tips. It was a great kick start for the summer. I have created my own system now that's very similar to Isagenix but will only cost me $30 per month. If I hadn't tried the Isagenix 30 program I for myself I wouldn't have been able to create a system just like it. So maybe it was a good thing. :)

Who Says Rain Has to Put a Damper on Things?

It has been raining non stop for the last couple weeks it seems. While we enjoy not having to do yard work and a little cooler weather we decided this week could still be fun.

Gabe started swimming lessons this week and loved it! On Friday we went to Discovery Park in Pleasant Grove with Grandma and the cousins. Gabe had lots of fun. We went to lunch afterwards at the Purple Turtle. The food looked delicious but I had to eat my salmon salad instead. My diet ends next week. It's been tough being around all this fattening food lately.

Today we were going to go to Dinosaur Park but due to the rain we decided to go to the Arts Festival at Union Station in Ogden. My friend Tausha told me about it this morning and we thought that sounded like fun. It was all free and Gabe loved seeing the trains and making crafts.

Afterwards we went to the Union Grill as we had never been there. Again I watched Manuel enjoy a yummy looking burger and appetizer and Gabe munch away at yummy chicken strips ans fruit. I sipped my water and entertained Paisley. After that we went to Farr's and I bought Gabe some blackberry cheese cake ice cream. He loved it, then fell asleep while eating it in the car.

What a day, what a week!! By the way I spelled "Cadillac" wrong in the slide show below and it won't let me fix it. Just an FYI :)

Genetics

Just thought it would be interesting to point out similarities of Manuel and I with our kids. The top ones are Gabe comparisons to Manuel and I at that age and the bottom ones are Paisley compared to us at her age. What do you think?

Strawberries, Fishing, Thunderstorms, Planes and Games

Wow what a week! Manuel got back from California on Thursday night which was very nice. I had been sick from Tuesday to Saturday with some type of cold that made me lose my voice. Not fun. So when Saturday came, we were very excited. It was free fishing day in Utah and so I went and bought a fishing pole. We got up early and packed a picnic and drove to East Canyon. It was a short and beautiful drive through Morgan canyon. We were dressed to swim and didn't realizeow cold it was up there until we got there. It was a beautiful looking day - just cold. We had lunch, Gabe dug in the sand, we sat in the sun played by the water and fished. Nope we didn't catch anything (it was our first time) but everyone else around us was. Gabe got to use his fishing pole he got for his birthday. It was fun. By 2:00 pm we were ready to leave. I decided to buy Manuel a burger and fries at the restaurant/store by the lake. Right as we got out of the car I locked my keys inside. Luckily there was a sheriff and wild life law enforcement officers in the parking lot. They were able to break in to my car with a slim jim. Thank goodness.

After Gabe and Manuel were done eating we drove back home to catch the second half of the air show. Gabe loved watching the planes fly over our house. After that we had dinner and then went to Jensen Nature Park in Syracuse to try another round at fishing. We sat there for an hour and then the rain came. No fish again. It's been a nice rainy week and we have enjoyed the moisture.

And what to do with all those garden strawberries? Gabe has been helping pick and wash them all. We've made homemade orange/strawberry popsicles and had strawberries and cream with our homemade vanilla ice cream. And of course smoothies!

Today we enjoyed a game of candy land the fun way. I've always wanted to play with real candy. Because it was Sunday we ad to make due with the candy we had around the house. I tried to match the candy to the candy in the game. Each time you reach a new candy location you get a piece of that candy. Gabe of course won and took almost all the candy. Manuel lost and decided it wasn't a very fun game.

Oh...Paisley said her first word today (aside from momma and dadda) she said "Jesus". We were at church and I was pointing to various paintings of Jesus and saying "Jesus". Right after I did it she began pointing and waving at them all and saying "Jesus" over and over. I couldn't be more proud as a parent having Jesus be my daughter's first word. Way to go Paisley!